


Wined and Trined

by newbandnamethx



Series: Trine Trilogy(ish) [1]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Getting Together, M/M, Sticky Sexual Interfacing, aka how tc and warp win over screms fragile little spark, trining, valve eating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:27:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25684258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/newbandnamethx/pseuds/newbandnamethx
Summary: Notoriously difficult to trine prince of Vos Starscream, "Screamer", "Untrineable" has caught the optic of seemingly the only two mecha left in Vos daring (or bored) enough to try and court him.Aka a gettogether fic ladies and gents.
Relationships: Skywarp/Starscream/Thundercracker (Transformers)
Series: Trine Trilogy(ish) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1927081
Comments: 24
Kudos: 199
Collections: A Labyrinth of Fics





	1. Chapter 1

They had been interested in Starscream for a while. Which, well. Everyone was interested in Starscream. Starscream was fast, intelligent and incomparable in how he graced the skies while in flight. It also seemed he was arrogant, sharp-tongued and volatile. He was also of royal lineage, a prince in title, one of his sires’ siblings being the current Winglord.

Starscream was of the prime age to join a trine and his family's pressure for him to join one was near incessant. However if one thing had become clear by now, it was that Starscream didn’t care for or appreciate others making their desires for him known.

The seeker made himself scarce, almost impossibly so. But he usually resurfaced into public view around the time of trining rituals and participated. 

For reasons unknown, instead of having a trine arranged for him, like most seekers of royal lineage, Starscream participated in the yearly trining rituals. While for some it was a token thing, and the pursued seeker would playfully lead a chase before willfully giving in to a mutually interested party, Starscream did no such thing.

He had, in fact, gotten into flat out midair brawls with pursuing duos, even once or twice, grounding them, before darting off, much to the uproarious enjoyment of bystanders and growing irritation of his family.

Thundercracker in short, had become infatuated with the spectacle that was Starscream. And by proxy that meant he had drug his bondmate along with him.

“Don’t worry TC, I got this,” Skywarp said, approaching Starscream’s hunched figure where it was sat at the bar. He appeared to be looking over some sort of datapad, occasionally tapping something into it before taking a sip of his energon and staring off into space for a bit. Thundercracker’s spark stuttered at the sight of him. Starscream, even looking agitated and unfriendly, as he often did, still was gorgeous. 

His dark face contrasted against the snow white of his wings, lined with a rich red that was complemented by the accents of a royal blue inlaid across other parts of his frame. He was sleek, he was elegant, he was striking. 

“Not interested,” Starscream said before Skywarp could get a word in, taking a sip of his cube of highgrade. He didn’t even spare Skywarp a sideways glance, let alone register Thundercracker’s.

“Aww, so it is true you’re as stuck up as you are pretty,” Skywarp jabbed. Starscream’s optics narrowed, and Skywarp was graced with a glare. 

“And you seem as annoying as you are dense.”

“Okay, Skywarp,” Thundercracker cut in nervously. Starscream eyed him now. The two of them were handsome, but if Starscream had settled for looks alone this trine business would’ve have been over years ago.

“Sorry to bother you, but I am Thundercracker and this is Skywarp-,” Thundercracker began, slight shake to his voice as he said his own designation. Starscream rolled his optics. Another duo who had no clue what they were asking for. Charming.

“I suppose you two are looking for a third?” Starscream said, tone flat, optics disinterested.

“That would be it yes, and if you would-,” Thundercracker started before cutting himself off at Starscream’s upraised servo.

“I’m not interested in courting. If you want to trine, do it the traditional way,” Starscream said. “It’s the whole reason I’m back in this Pit forsaken city.”

“Don’t you want to get to know your potential trinemates before you’re stuck with them for life?” Skywarp said in disbelief.

Starscream looked at him, amused, “No one has managed to ground me yet, let alone even come close. As far as I am concerned there’s no need to get to know who the next couple of reject suitors will be. Now stop crowding me and go away.” The last two words were enunciated pristinely as Starscream turned his frame away to look back at his datapad.

“You-,” Skywarp started out in a rage. Thundercracker gripped him by the elbow and all but dragged him away.

“TC, sure he’s pretty and all, but his personality is slag, why don’t we just court one of those cute agreeable seekers,” Skywarp hissed quietly as they returned to their own table. 

Thundercracker stared after Starscream a bit, observing him before his gaze returned to Skywarp. “I like him.”

“Primus, why?” Skywarp huffed in exasperation, leaning away from him before clasping his shoulder and dragging their helms together, speaking lowly. “I trust your judgment TC but with this, I don’t know.”

“How about we catch him and court him instead of trining him right away? If you don’t like him we let him go and you pick,” Thundercracker said, turning his gaze away from Starscream to stare intently at Skywarp.

“You really think that glitch has an appealing side?” 

“I think his defenses are up because he’s one of the most harried untrined seekers right now.”

“He just said he isn’t interested in courting us,” Skywarp said, looking over his shoulder to glare at the unperturbed Starscream who had returned to being entrenched in his datapad.

“He might change his tune once we prove to him we’re not like other suitors,” Thundercracker hummed calmly, watching one of Starscream’s wings twitch in irritation as another mech sidled up to him, his servo sliding across his back, just under his wings, to touch his waist.

“Fine but, trine or not, we better get to frag after catching him,” Skywarp muttered.

“If he’s willing,” Thundercracker shrugged, “sure.”

A resounding crash was heard as the other mech was sent sprawling onto the floor and Starscream rapidly rose to his pedes, knocking back his cube of highgrade and leaving it on the counter empty. With a flourish of indignant wing twitching, he was gone from the bar, leaving his disheveled suitor collecting his processor in his wake.

“Real winner you picked there,” Skywarp muttered, looking at the bewildered mess of a mech on the floor, and then back to Thundercracker, unimpressed.

\---

The day of the trining flight arrived without much celebration on Starscream’s part. Sure, he polished himself to a mirror shine, unwilling to look anything less than resplendent among other mecha.

The air was dead, the noise over the city hushed. It was the calm before the storm. Starscream’s carrier was fussing about him, servo cupping one cheek, her optics looking into his, gentle smile on her face. She was the only one still accompanying him out to these events, his family having long lost patience with his trining antics.

“Do us proud, Starlet,” she said, giving him a soft smile. If it had been anyone else he might’ve sneered but his carrier, he knew, sincerely held his best interests at heart. She didn’t want him to make her proud at his own expense, she wanted to see him happy. Which was a lot more than he could say for anyone else in the realm of his family.

For them trining was a powerplay in the ever expanding jigsaw of political games, but he knew, for his carrier who had fallen deeply for her trine and was still yet to recover from the honeymoon phase, that it wasn’t something cold and lifeless for her, but instead a source of pride she sought to nurture every day.

He sometimes wondered if something like that was just impossible for him. If his spark was too hard, or he was too difficult as his royal elders had often commented. Maybe if he had inherited his carrier’s easy laughing grace or soft hearted charm things would have been different. 

But they weren’t and here they were. So he grasps her servo in his, pressing his face closer into her touch smiling softly and gives her the same reassurance he’s given her before every ceremony. 

“I’ll do my best.”

And like that the sounding call is blaring and he lets go of her and takes a running leap into the air, transforming rapidly to shoot away, gaining altitude quickly. He had a sort of strategy to these things by now, the first of which was to dive around in the clouds out of sight for a bit and wait while other mecha tired themselves out.

Only after the landscape of the city had cleared and become much less frenetic, would he reappear to dance with the remaining mecha. At sunset the trining ritual was officially over and he would ground himself. 

That was the plan.

He wove in and out of the clouds watching as trines were completed. He was smirking amusedly as one particularly daring and sleek red seeker continued to evade a pursuing duo by pulling the same tricky flight maneuver over and over again, on the third time nearly causing the two to crash into each other before she flitted off out of sight completely, leaving her pursuers at a loss.

As he watched he had the eerie sensation of the air around him seeming to ripple before a shattering crack announced the arrival of a blue jet, closing in uncomfortably near to Starscream. Startled, Starscream immediately lost altitude to escape him, dropping himself into clear view. Luckily the space around him was mostly empty and he hadn’t yet garnered anymore unwanted attention, it seemed.

Except for the blue jet. Starscream squinted at it as it came around, the coloring seeming familiar. As the jet crackled along towards him at a nauseating speed, realization dawned on Starscream.

Thundercracker.

Part of him lit up in surprised glee at realizing the name was apt for his opponent’s ability. And if he was in the area pursuing him that meant his partner was somewhere in the vicinity as well. 

Starscream streaked off as Thundercracker came back around in the opposite direction, flipping himself upside down so that he just glanced over the jet rocketing in the opposing direction before pulling himself right again and cruising for a bit. 

When he banked he saw the two of them pursuing him, Thundercracker at his left wing tip, Skywarp at his right. Their proximity was alarming but instead of fear Starscream felt a sharp thrill course through him as he banked sharply down, pulling into a dizzying spiral.

As he pulled out of it he banked again to survey where his pursuers had gone, only to see that they seemed to be hovering exactly where he had taken his plunge. 

A part of him smirked in triumph while another part of him was disappointed that the game between them had ended before it really even had the chance to get going.

He was coasting along, looking at the barren ground underneath him, the city a small pinprick behind him. He had, a few trining rituals ago, spent the entire ritual outside the city in root mode perched on a rock with a particularly engaging datapad. He could do that this time as well, but he wasn’t in an especially poor mood and the idea of returning to spite more pursuers appealed to him.

Banking sharply he was about to turn back when a distant dull boom announced the speeding blue streak of Thundercracker as he jettisoned by harrowingly close. A moment later he was turning around and Starscream’s sensors indicated him nipping at his tail and gaining.

Then his sensors registered a second presence and Starscream’s processor was beginning to wrap itself around the idea that the two at his wing tips proposed a very real threat to his continued independence. And that was all it took for him to finally take their challenge seriously. 

Starscream found himself flowing into a series of difficult and jarring maneuvers, sharp turns, daring dips, some downright suicidal drops in altitude. But through it all they hardly lost distance or seemed troubled to follow him through the steps of the intricate dance he led.

If anything, a time or two he caught Skywarp coming out of a trick with a giddy little flourish. He could feel himself tiring out, the way he lagged a little pulling out of turns, or found himself getting a bit lost in a roll and pulling out of it sloppier than he would have preferred.

Finally, having enough of being tailgated, and sensing that if he didn’t try something soon he actually would end up trined to the two he had snubbed in the bar the night before, Starscream pulled himself sharply up, rocketing in altitude.

He completely lost Skywarp, and even Thundercracker struggled to match his ascent, but rapidly made up for it by activating his ability. Starscream heard the boom and slowed down as he watched Thundercracker rocket past, falling out of his climb to coast away gently. 

His fuel was at near empty and he would have to land somewhere soon. It was a relief to see that above the clouds, the sky was hazing a dull orange, the ritual was almost over and then he would have another span of peace before the next one.

Unfortunately his sensors detected Thundercracker approaching him again at a rapid speed as his fuel tank groaned at the task of more manuevers. Just as Starscream did a pretty little maneuver to dodge Thundercracker’s rocketing form he felt something, slam into him. Panic seared through Starscream’s systems as he looked ahead to see Thundercracker quite far off which meant he still had time-

Or so he thought until with a peculiar little “vop” he found himself just beneath Thundercracker, the two of them slowly losing altitude as Starscream struggled under the weight, unable to shake whatever was bearing down on him.

With another crack they were completely down, and as the weight off him lifted, Starscream immediately transformed, rising to his pedes and hitching up his wings in clear alarm. He saw that the weight had been Skywarp who had apparently rode him down in root mode.

“How,” Starscream looked between the two of them stunned, even as a smug grin spread on Skywarp’s face. “Did you two do that?”

Thundercracker shrugged, “Outlier abilities.”

“There are more seekers with outlier abilities than just you two that have attempted something like that,” Starscream said. “That’s not it. How did you follow my movements so well?”

“We’ve been watching you fly and dodge other duos for a while, so I guess we know a few of your tricks by now. Also TC wrote out a strategy. You leaving the city really helped us minimize damage with TC’s ability, so thanks for that.”

Starscream’s optics brightened in surprise, “Who even,” Starscream struggled as a flood of indignant questions rose up, too many to voice. He was frustrated, embarrassed, stunned and a lot of other things.

“I’m Skywarp, that's Thundercracker. You can call us Warp and TC if you want,” Skywarp said, jutting his thumb at himself and then Thundercracker.

Starscream sighed, looking put upon, and eyed the two of them, “I suppose you want to go somewhere private for the rest of it then?” The slump of his shoulders was defeated, and had he not been watching Starscream be such a terrible winner for he didn’t know how many trining rituals, Skywarp might’ve felt a little bad for him.

“Don’t look so thrilled,” Skywarp said sullenly. “TC I thought you said his attitude might get better if we caught him.”

“Well, he’s letting us talk this time,” Thundercracker said, looking at his partner wearily before looking at Starscream. “We have no intent to trine you out of obligation. As we said at the bar, we want to court you, and if that evolves into something, then we would like to trine. All we ask is for a sincere effort in getting to know us before you decide.”

“Or we could get to know each other a bit now,” Skywarp said, servo coming up on his forearm lightly. Starscream looked at him, actually took him in. There was a wary yet playful edge to him and the slightest bit of hunger in his red optics.

“By get to know each other,” Starscream started slowly.

“A quick frag is what he’s after,” Thundercracker sighed. “His libido is through the roof.”

“No bonding?” 

“No bonding,” Thundercracker confirmed with a nod, and an encouraging smile.

Starscream seemed to mull it over. 

“Alright.”

“Alright?” Skywarp gripped him eagerly, wariness dissipating as he edged his frame in closer to Starscream’s, crowding his personal space. Starscream tamped down the well of agitation he felt at the intrusion, choosing instead to focus on how endearingly overexcited his suitor was.

“TC are you going to join us?”

“If that's alright with you Starscream,” Thundercracker said with a tilt of his helm in Starscream’s direction.

“Ah, yes?” Starscream said unsteadily before his optics refocused and he looked at Thundercracker clearly. “Yes that would be fine.”

Just as Starscream was beginning to worry if he had enough fuel to make it back to the city, Skywarp reached out and touched his servo to Starscream’s arm.

The three of them found themselves teleported into a small but cozy room. There was a plush berth, cleanly made, full of pillows and blankets. There was a desk stacked full of datapads and the walls around it lined with printed out data charts and what looked to be maps.

Starscream wobbled on his pedes unsteadily a moment, acclimating the feeling of suddenly being jolted from one place to another. He swallowed dryly for a moment, afraid he was going to purge.

“Here,” A cube was pushed into his servo, as another on his back served to steady him. “You really ran us ragged today, no surprise you’re out of it.”

Starscream took it, eyeing it suspiciously. Thundercracker sighed, taking it from him and having a sip, glossa licking away a small smear of blue left on his lips. 

“Not drugged, not poisoned, drink it before you keel over,” Thundercracker said, handing back the cube to Starscream. The more time he spent around Thundercracker seeing his more confident side, the more appeal the blue mech had to him.

“Wow, zero trust in us, huh Screamer, very sexy,” Skywarp snorted, cube in his own servo as he clapped Starscream on the back, grinning as the other mech’s optics flashed with irritation.

Starscream looked ready to snap back but Thundercracker quickly redirected the conversation. “So Starscream, why don’t we seem to see you around much outside of trining rituals?”

“I’m gone in Iacon most of the year, I study there,” Starscream said almost shyly, and Skywarp’s spark twinged a bit. “My family would discontinue my enrollment if I refused to come back to Vos for participation in trining, but I had been on a good streak of avoiding that until you two,” the words are bitter but the way Starscream looks at them is almost affectionate.

“Why didn’t they ever just trine you to other royals?” Skywarp asked.

“Because I am not appealing to other royals, as much as they tried to sell me to them,” Starscream said bitterly. “I would have to hold my tongue far more often and stop reading as much, and enjoy doddering around at social functions, to be agreeable to the likes of a royal suitor.”

“Agreeable? Yeah that doesn’t sound like you,” Skywarp said and to Thundercracker’s surprise Starscream laughed, low and rich. 

“No not at all. My first trine was set up with some rather important diplomatic relations, and after I botched that up, my family started letting me participate in the general trining rituals,” Starscream said and his gaze darkened.

“Botched up, how did you-,” Skywarp started, optics darting to look at Thundercracker who shook his helm slightly. Something about Starscream’s frame seemed to indicate distress at the subject.

“A story for another time,” Starscream said dismissively, before shifting to look at Skywarp, intrigue plain in his expression.

“How do you do the,” Starscream waved his servo, struggling for his words. “Warp thing?” He wanted, sincerely to see if Skywarp could open his mouth and say something that didn’t immediately slither under his plating.

Skywarp seemed surprised and then flustered by the question, optics darting around as he shuffled his pedes under Starscream’s intent gaze, “Oh well, it’s just my drive, I run the calculations, start it up, adjust the parameters.”

“Parameters?”

“Y’know, how far, what trajectory, whether to keep current momentum, slow it down, or stop completely. Like, warping onto a roof out of a freefall would be no good if I couldn’t tweak stuff like that.”

“You calculate that yourself?”

Skywarp shrugged, “I mean I was born with the drive, after a while it becomes intuition, but there's definitely a strategy to using it effectively.” Skywarp sidled over to Thundercracker, nudging him while grinning appreciatively. “TC actually helps me utilize it the best.”

Thundercracker shrugged, “I keep you from spazzing out and burning through all your fuel, the rest is all you.”

“And how did you two….” Starscream started.

“Oh, that,” Skywarp said blandly, “TC helped his sire arrest me.”

“He was let go,” Thundercracker reassured Starscream when he looked between them alarmed. “Warp just has next to no common sense when it comes to knowing who not to tick off.”

“I filled some fancy ballroom with cleaning solvent,” Skywarp said with a shrug. “It wasn’t even that bad, the room came out cleaner than it was before.”

“That was you?” Starscream said and a chuckle of disbelief slipped out of him. He remembered the hubbub that had been that incident, and the indignation of some of his aunts and uncles at the defiling of their esteemed space by a scruffy commoner whelp.

“Pit yeah it was me,” Skywarp said proudly, wings fanning out in satisfaction. “All I had to do was warp in, mix the supplies and warp out.”

“Investigators were thinking it was a camera glitch or that someone had released an emp or something, and were pursuing suspects down that line of thought,” Thundercracker continued.

“But then TC had the idea to check outlier abilities and whoops, that’s how I got caught,” Skywarp said with a grin. “The purple flash of my warp drive was a massive tell.”

“He was hitting on me all the way to the holding cell and my sire was about ready to slag him into an early extinguishing,” Thundercracker said with a fond smile at the memory.

“But anyways,” Skywarp said, cutting short the reminiscing. “We agreed upon a frag, if you’re still willing?”

“Indeed,” Starscream said with a nod, trying to hide a nervous grin as Skywarp stepped into his space, herding him towards the berth.

“So can I call you Screamer-,” Skywarp started before Starscream’s playful grin dropped to a scowl.

“Absolutely not,” he hated that nickname. His younger cousins adored calling him that to watch his face turn unpleasant colors.

“Then does Star work for you?” Skywarp tried again, servo sliding up his thigh to ghost his modesty panel.

Starscream’s panel retracted and Skywarp pressed a servo to his valve without hesitation, making Starscream yelp. 

“Wow you’re really wet,” Skywarp said in an amused tone. Starscream’s face flushed in indignation.

“Aww, don’t get mad, it’s cute,” Skywarp purred. “You got off on getting grounded didn’t you.”

“Skywarp,” Thundercracker’s warning tone cut in as he watched fury and humiliation start to pervade Starscream’s expression.

“Okay, okay, no teasing, got it,” Skywarp said, holding up his servos in a placating gesture. He leaned in close, trying again with a low purr, “I can be sensitive.”

As if to prove his point he started slowly, pushing Starscream’s cream thighs apart. He spent a few minutes just rubbing soft circles in them, climbing higher and higher, closer to Starscream’s array before losing his feigned patience and delving in. Starscream jolted and made a strangled noise as Skywarp’s tongue entered him, and Thundercracker practically radiated amusement as he watched the stiff displeasure that seemed near always present on Starscream’s face dissolve into something softer and more pliant.

“I don’t think you’ve done this before, have you,” Thundercracker smirked, amused that he was continuing to find areas where their scope of knowledge exceeded Starscream’s. Sure he was smart and well classed and an excellent flier. But something about the seeker also came off as unsteady and sheltered, which he supposed Starscream tried to cover up with abrasiveness. 

Cute. The revelation was cute. Just like watching Starscream’s attempts at stoicism falter as he openly panted while Skywarp busied himself between his thighs.

His optics grew dimmer as he rocked into Skywarp, urging for more contact. Skywarp gripped him around his thighs, pulling him closer, allowing him to lavish more attention with his glossa to more intimate parts of Starscream’s array. 

Gently Skywarp felt servos press the back of his helm, as if to urge him on. Skywarp smirked and pulled himself away from Starscream’s valve a bit to lave at his anterior node, giving it a light suck as he pushed at Starscream’s valve with two digits.

All too suddenly, Starscream’s frame was seizing up, one optic half shuttering in a wince as the noises down south suddenly got wetter. Skywarp pulled away, lubricant smeared on his face, wiping at it carelessly with the back of his servo, looking entirely too pleased with himself.

“Hmm? Oh, you overloaded already,” Skywarp said distractedly, seeming to come down from his high. “Don’t worry about that, I think it’s cute.”

Starscream looked completely bewildered.

“You spike or me, TC likes to spike, but I don’t really care,” Skywarp prattled on, and Starscream looked uneasy, which Skywarp noticed as his face got in close to Starscream’s the other’s scrunching up in alarm at his sudden proximity.

“What’s wrong Star?”

“I’ve never-,” Starscream cut himself off, looking desolate and vulnerable before his expression rearranged into something haughty and indignant. “Mecha of my pedigree don’t permit themselves to interface for sport.”

“Aww, you’re a virgin,” Skywarp cooed, cupping Starscream’s helm in his servos and chuckling as he felt the plating grow warm under his as Starscream’s attempt at controlling the situation lapsed into embarrassed and defensive spluttering.

Skywarp cut off whatever cutting remark Starscream had lined up by sealing his lips on Starscream’s, servos reaching up to play with his wings. Starscream’s irritation seemed to abate as he was distracted by a barrage of new sensations.

“Okay, then I’ll spike if you aren’t opposed,” Skywarp said and as he said it, his spike pressurized. Starscream looked at it as if Skywarp had just warped them two thousand feet in the air without the ability to fly.

“Star?” Skywarp said softly, putting a servo on his cheek, this time not in a goading or teasing manner but in a way that reminded him startlingly of his carrier. Starscream’s spark wrenched with an odd sort of emotion as his vocalizer frizzed up.

“You okay to do this? It’s fine if you don’t want to. TC chickens out of stuff he agreed to do in the berth all the time,” Skywarp said, jerking his helm at an only mildly protesting Thundercracker.

“He waits until we’re both overcharged to ask about the most inane things, be wary of that.”

Skywarp’s wings twitched in a manner that didn’t exactly deny what Thundercracker had said, only betrayed his amusement at his words. 

“Anyways, are you alright to continue?”

Starscream only muttered a weak sound of agreement, not quite trusting his vocalizer not to crack mid sentence. His wings twitched his affirmation louder than his actual vocalizer. Skywarp noted that before he kissed him again, breaking it and tossing a look over his shoulder at Thundercracker, sharing an amused glance.

“Are you going to join TC? Or just watch?” Skywarp asked, the question allowing a dazed and lightly panting Starscream some time to recover.

Thundercracker considered it a moment, then said, “I’ll just watch.”

Skywarp shrugged, before returning his attention to Starscream. 

“He’s weird like that sometimes, brings too much of his processor into fragging if you ask me,” Skywarp murmured, as he shifted his spike between Starscream’s legs.

“Warp, you can’t. You gotta-,” Starscream tried, moans permeating his speech as he struggled to get out what he was trying to say.

“Don’t gotta nothing, but I might if you ask nicely,” Skywarp purred and he continued to grind himself against Starscream’s opening. A strangled cry responded to a particularly harsh grind by Skywarp and then he felt his spike get considerably wetter as Starscream’s frame slumped.

“Oh,” Skywarp said sheepishly, looking at how infuriated and exhausted his berthmate appeared. Optics looking suspiciously wet, Starscream glared up at him.

“I was trying to tell you,” He snarled.

“Hey, hey, hey, easy there,” Skywarp said, pulling Starscream’s frame to his, ignoring the broken hiss that accompanied the motion. 

The mood had been sapped out of the room as he could detect the fury and embarrassment practically radiating off Starscream’s frame. Skywarp looked guilty as Starscream’s wings huddled close to his frame.

“Relax Starscream, the first time Warp spiked me he accidentally slipped out after like three thrusts and then came on my thighs before he could get back in.”

“Hey,” came the indignant shout as Skywarp’s irritated helm swiveled to fix TC with a glare. “You said you wouldn’t tell.”

Thundercracker just smirked.

A soft smothered noise came from behind him and Thundercracker turned to see Starscream smothering laughter. He would’ve been mad if it wasn’t so cute. So instead he dives at Starscream drawing an angry squawk out of him. Skywarp soothes him with a kiss and by running his digits into sensitive seams, before pulling off, looking smug on his part.

A moment later a disheveled Starscream is rising after him, looking for all the world like he is ready to go for a third time with Skywarp when the telltale beep of a comm sounds off. Starscream checks it and his wings seem to flutter downwards.

“Family is calling,” he said. 

“Surely they expected you to stay the night?” Thundercracker said incredulously. 

Starscream’s face grew sour as he tucked his wings to his side, “Not with untrined mecha, no. Either I fly home or they send guards to come fetch me.”

Thundercracker and Skywarp shared a look. 

“Alright well, you have our comms, we’ll see you soon?” Thundercracker asked tentatively. 

Starscream’s wings hiked and he nearly beamed at them, bad mood seemingly forgotten in an instant, “Yes, I think so.”

And with that he was gone from their home.

\---

“Okay,” Skywarp said, a bit after Starscream had left. “He’s cute. That’s a point in his favor.”

“Does that mean,” Thundercracker started, looking at his partner eagerly.

“I just said he’s cute, and he’s fun to frag, even if he knows next to nothing, and we didn’t even really get to frag. But he still is rude, and has kind of a bad personality,” Skywarp said, trying to sound testy even as he was smiling at the memory of Starscream’s shocked little expression after he first overloaded.

Skywarp sighed heavily in resignation to his fate, “It maybe wouldn’t be so bad… if he was our third.”

Thundercracker’s wings twitched up in excitement.

“You’re smitten with him aren’t you?” Skywarp said a bit gloomily. “Well he seems to like you more than he likes me anyways.”

“I don’t think that’s true, he might just know how to read me better and feels more comfortable because of it. You saw how defensive he gets about, well, everything,” Thundercracker said, smiling softly as he reached out to rub tender little circles into his partner’s wings. Some of the distress eased off Skywarp’s face as he leaned into Thundercracker’s shoulder.

“I think once he opens up, he could be really nice,” Thundercracker continued, and his face drifted to some dreamy imagining.

“I’d love to open up his-,” Thundercracker elbowed him with a poorly concealed grin.

“Warp cut back on that a bit, he’s clearly not comfortable with interfacing yet.”

Skywarp snorted, “Yeah I can see that. I had heard the rumours about royals being prudes, but I didn’t think it was that bad.”

Thundercracker shrugged, “His family seems to keep a tight leash.”

“Yeah,” Skywarp said. “Well maybe even if we don’t trine, we can still have a bit of fun.”

Thundercracker smiled and nodded. He tried to shove down the flutter in his spark at the thought of seeing Starscream again. But Skywarp caught him still with his dopey giddy grin hours later as they lay in berth together.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Family drama, royal drama, its all drama

Returning back, Starscream was greeted with an angry sire. She was hard to spot in the dark, her plating almost all black, except for highlights of royal gold, and rich red that lined her frame in delicate swirls and matched her optics, two angry pinpricks that made it possible for him to spy her in the dark. He saw her, standing on his balcony and briefly debated the merits of flitting off to some other part of the castle, technically home but not quite where he was supposed to be.

But that would just be kicking the problem farther down the road, and he already felt like a mixed jumble of emotions, so why not throw some gasoline on it?

“Starscream,” Slender digits wrapped themselves around his arm, pulling him close in a semblance of a hug. If hugs were supposed to be aggressive and dominating. When his sire released him, it was to look him over. Gentle, yet firm servos gripped his chin, turning his helm from side to side.

“Where were you?” She demanded.

“Windscream, is Star home?” a soft voice called from somewhere distant in the building behind her.

“Out here, Starlight,” his sire called, not taking her optics off Starscream.

The tension in Starscream’s stance alleviated a bit as he saw the smooth white gleam of his carrier and her gentle blue optics on his, appearing from behind to come to his side, servo resting protectively on Starscream’s shoulder as the inspection seemed to have reached its conclusion.

“I was grounded today,” Starscream allowed himself to admit. Surprisingly, his voice lacked the shame he had always expected to feel with uttering those words.

Shock marred his creator's dark visage before her lip curled up in an annoyed snarl, “Then what are you doing here?”

“They said I had the choice to court them before I…,” Starscream trailed off as his sire’s expression churned into one of deep fury.

“Windscream,” his carrier hastily cut in, as a black servo reached out towards Starscream, leading to him flinching away. “I think it’s lovely for him to have the opportunity to get to know them via courting, one should never rush into these sort of things.”

“He wouldn’t have to rush if he had taken them seriously from the start,” Windscream seethed but drew back her servo.

“He’s still young, he has time,” Starlight soothed, petting the side of Starscream’s helm distractedly, before turning her attention back to him fully. “What are they like Star?”

“Two outliers, Thundercracker and Skywarp. Both seem to be of common background, but Thundercracker has ties to enforcement,” Starscream said, hoping that his descriptions would at least not serve to agitate his sire further when the door banged open and his second sire appeared with a jaunty walk, sky blue plating gleaming along with his amber optics in the lantern lights that lined the edge of the balcony.

“Daybreak, nice of you to finally take an interest in your creation’s mess,” Windscream snorted at his carefree swagger.

“Hello, love,” Starlight greeted, coming over to peck a soft kiss onto his cheek.

“How did it go today Star? Run them ragged again?” Daybreak said, slumping a huge arm around Starscream and pulling him in close. 

“He was grounded,” Windscream said flatly.

“By two lovely outliers,” Starlight added eagerly.

“Grounded,” Daybreak said, pulling back to study Starscream, “Well what the pit are you doing here?”

“Squandering another opportunity, surely,” his other sire said dourly, folding her arms across her cockpit and looking at Starscream with a thoroughly unimpressed look.

“Alright, alright, enough nettling him,” Daybreak said, holding up a servo. Windescream looked at him haughtily though discontinued making her displeasure known, at least verbally. “You two seem tired, it’s been a long day, why don’t I take Star to refuel, and I’ll see you two in berth in a bit.”

Starlight nodded, pecking a soft kiss onto Starscream’s cheek, then Daybreak’s before leaving. Windscream similarly pressed her cheek to his and murmured a threatening “We’ll continue discussing tomorrow” before disappearing.

Daybreak looked at him amused, “I saved you for another few hours of recharge, that's the best I can do for now.” A large servo rested around him as Daybreak steered him into the castle. They followed winding corridors until they came into a small empty servant’s kitchen.

“Figured we’d have more privacy here,” Daybreak said as he came back with two cubes, sliding one across the table to Starscream. He took a sip.

“So, courting, eh? Your sire courted me before we trined with your carrier.”

Starscream grimaced, “Spare me, I’ve heard that story a hundred times.”

“She was quite the minx back then, Windscream, less pouty, but that only adds to her charm nowadays-.”

“I said spare me,” Starscream insisted, but he was smiling anyway. His second sire always did know how to coax a grin out of him. 

Daybreak shared his amusement for a moment before he sobered up. “Listen Star, if you want to choose, I’d suggest taking courting these two very seriously. Windscream doesn’t mean to be snappish but the Winglord is exerting a lot of pressure on her to see you properly trined. He doesn’t exactly… appreciate how your unruliness looks to outsiders.”

“So I should trine myself off quickly and fall in line?” Starscream sneered, Daybreak’s expression dropping to exasperation at the start of the same age old argument.

“You should take care to choose for yourself before someone else chooses for you,” Daybreak said. “Star, do you ever what to talk about why the trining fell through with the ambassador’s creation and his partner?”

“No,” Starscream said sourly. Daybreak sighed, and Starscream felt a guilty pang at the exhaustion in it.

“Well, tell me about your trine in question. If you’re even considering them, I’m guessing they’re excellent fliers.”

Starscream nodded, and then shrugged. “I don’t know, haven’t gotten the chance to talk much.”

Starscream’s sire raised an optical ridge and Starscream stiffened as he realized his mistake. 

“Didn’t do much talking, eh?” Daybreak was leaning across the table, face smug. “Don’t worry, I wouldn’t dream of telling Windscream. Just make sure if you are going to spark merge and also-.”

“Sire!” Starscream yelled softly, but harsh enough to make his desire for him to stop known. 

Daybreak chuckled, “I just want to make sure that I am not going to become a grandsire any earlier-.”

Daybreak stopped when Starscream looked about ready to chuck his cube at him, “Funny, you and Windscream make the same expression, you know I had to talk to her about contraceptives when it came to,” the rest droned out as Starscream rose to stand but found him getting caught by the servo before he could clear the room.

Stupid cramped servants quarters, no way for him to walk more than an arm’s length away from his sire….

“I tease, I tease, Starlet,” Daybreak soothed. “Decorum aside, I am happy to see you bonding with other mecha. Ever since you came back without your shuttle friend.” Starscream’s optics shuttered tight as he tried to drown out the rest of Daybreak's words. His sire meant well, and sometimes that was part of what made it hurt worse. A servo touched his cheek. Starscream opened his optics to stare into his sire’s.

“I just want to see you happy Starlet, so does Windscream,” Daybreak said, before scratching his cheek sheepishly at Starscream’s incredulous look. “She does, she just. You know how her side of the family is, she thinks she has to decide for you to start you on the path to happiness.” 

“I was happy when I was in Iacon,” Starscream says, but there's no real bite to the statement because they’ve also had this exact argument he doesn’t know how many times.

“Iacon isn’t your home and it isn’t where your duty lies,” Daybreak repeated the same rebuttal, sounding a disturbing amount like Windscream. That one line had been whispered, screamed, pleaded at him more than any other. Starscream just turned his helm away and exvented loudly.

“Let me go to berth,” he said, trying to pull his servo away.

“Star did you ever hear news back from Iacon, about if they ever found him?” Daybreak asked, but Starscream stopped listening to the question halfway through in an attempt to pull himself free with a snarl.

“Stop asking about that as if you care,” Starscream spat. “We all know it was a big convenience when that shuttle had the courtesy to die and stop distracting me from getting trined.”

Hurt and horror and maybe a tinge of disgust flashed across Daybreak’s face, and his grip finally loosened enough that Starscream was able to rip his servo free and with that he bolted from the room. He arrived in his room and quickly shut and locked the door, falling on his berth and shuttering his optics. 

His intake hurt from how much he was struggling to keep his vocalizer silent, static crackling against his will, and his spark hurt as if someone had fractured it with an ice pick. He was grateful, more than anything, when the exhaustion of the day hit him like his berthroom ceiling had caved in on him and he went into recharge.

\---

The first thing to greet him in the morning light was the telltale beep of an override code. 

“The day is half over Starscream, get up,” Windscream said, and by the look on her face he could tell that his unkind words to his sire yesterday had been relayed to her. She did not appear pleased. Her face was stiff and cold as she looked him over, and then proceeded to make her list of demands.

“You will apologize to your sire for your unkind implications last night. You know as well as I that you were lashing out due to emotional instability, and that is not your sire’s fault,” Windscream said as Starscream’s jaw set with the strain of holding back thoughts he didn’t dare allow his vocalizer to process. Instead he gave a curt nod avoiding looking at his sire.

“Next I want you to invite your trinemates to be at the next gala,” Windscream said and Starscream was so startled by that, that he didn’t argue the implication that they were already intended to be trined.

“To the gala?” He repeated dumbly.

“It will, of course, be your job to make sure they adhere to decorum. I’ll tell you this Starscream, I looked into this Skywarp’s background and I am not overly impressed. Should he have been bonded to a lesser mech than Thundercracker, I would debate rejecting your choice as a whole.”

A part of Starscream eased in relief at having Skywarp’s troublesomeness out in the open. He could only imagine what a stewing disaster trying to hide his suitor’s inherent mischievousness long term would have been.

“So get up, and get ready, and do as I asked,” Windscream said, putting extra emphasis on the last four words before his door was sliding shut and he found himself alone. Starscream sighed. 

May as well get the easiest task out of the way first. He punched in the number to Thundercracker’s private comm.

“Hello?” Thundercracker’s alert voice sounded on the other end.

“Thundercracker, it’s Starscream from the trining ritual,” Starscream began haltingly. It felt awkward trying to reintroduce himself after having been so intimate in their berth just yesterday. His face flushed at the memory of Skywarp’s tongue in his-

“Oh Starscream, lovely to hear from you,” Thundercracker said, and the warmth in his voice sent tingles down his back strut. Starscream heard the distant whisper of “Not now Warp” before he continued on.

“Yes well, my family is having a gala and as my intended trine, they would like you to be there, I shall send you the details promptly,” Starscream spat out in a rush and then, with a thrill of panic, closed the line.

There. One of two duties done.

\---

Thundercracker slowly lowered himself down onto their berth in stunned silence.

“Was that Star?” Skywarp said, munching through a handful of rust sticks. “Don’t tell me the fragger already called off our courting.”

“No… quite the opposite actually,” Thundercracker said, looking at Skywarp with wide optics. “He invited us to a gala.”

Skywarp choked on his mouthful, coughing half masticated bits of his snack onto the berth while Thundercracker looked at them in distaste.

“Warp, gross.”

Skywarp waved him off, “I’ll clean it up later.” He certainly wouldn’t. “Wow so, Screamer is actually taking us kinda seriously, huh?”

“Seems like it,” Thundercracker said and he couldn’t help the pleased little thrill that welled up inside him.

“Well, hopefully it isn’t the same ballroom I ruined that one time,” Skywarp said as he flopped himself back onto the berth next to Thundercracker.

“Warp we need to take this semi seriously,” Thundercracker said as he eyed his partner’s lax pose. “Starscream seems to be on edge about trining and that's most likely due to pressure exerted on him by his family. We have to be on our best behavior and not add to that.”

“I can behave,” Skywarp groaned. “I won’t warp, shout, or frag strangers.”

“Thanks Skywarp you’ve covered the entirety of party etiquette,” Thundercracker said dryly with an optic roll.

“I’m sure Starscream would be the first to tell us if we’re displeasing him, anyways,” Skywarp snorted.

There was a moment of silence between them.

“TC do you really think we’re going to fit in with all this high society scrap if we really do end up trining Screamer?” Skywarp said, rolling over to put his helm in his servos and gaze at his partner questioningly.

Thundercracker shrugged, “I care what Star’s family thinks in regards to how it makes Star feel, and them allowing us to trine him, but outside of that, I don’t think it matters.”

“Meaning?” 

“If Star’s family doesn’t like us in the long run and he’s fine with that, I am too,” Thundercracker said with a shrug.

“Yeah I guess,” Skywarp muttered.

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” Thundercracker said, placing a servo on Skywarp’s wing and stroking it absentmindedly. “I don’t think Star fits into his own family too well either, judging by his aversion to tradition.”

“Maybe he just hates other mecha,” Skywarp snorted.

“Maybe he just doesn’t like being told what to do or having things expected of him without having his feelings taken into consideration,” Thundercracker said, the words making Skywarps processor stutter for a moment. 

He certainly knew that feeling. Maybe there was more common ground between him and Starscream than he first thought.  
\---  
The night of the gala came up rather quick. Thundercracker had polished them both to a mirror shine and they strode in tall and proud for all of five seconds before the optics on them had Skywarp getting twitchy and Thundercracker feeling unsure.

The room was resplendent, decorated in sweeping curtains of gold and red, tables set with pristine white cloths and laden with delicious looking delicacies and ornate centerpieces, also of prominently gold coloring. The two of them stood there, looking dumbstruck, unsure of what to do when a slender servo wrapped itself around Thundercracker’s arm and he turned to see what was probably one of the most sleek and graceful looking mechs he’d ever seen. She was all white, plating like the clouds, optics like the sky.

“You must be Thundercracker, such a powerful name, it suits you,” her voice comes out soft with a teasing lilt, soft blue optics regarding him with a gentle curiosity. Her gaze shifts to Skywarp and brightens with amusement.

“And you are Skywarp, the mischievous outlier, good to know who gave our ballroom such a lovely scrub down.”

“You’r-,” Thundercracker starts before someone whacks him heavily on his back.

“Starscream’s carrier and sire, that’s us,” A looming blue mech looks down at Thundercracker, amusement plain in his amber optics. “You two are the ones who bruised Star’s ego, eh?”

“I am Starlight and this is Daybreak, a pleasure to meet you two,” Starscream’s carrier said as she looked at her trinemate.

“Daybreak, what have we said about accosting the guests,” Starlight tutted as she eyed where Daybreak’s servo was hanging heavily on Thundercracker’s wing, causing the normally sturdy mech to list to the right a bit.

“Only do it after I’m charged enough to blame it on the energon,” Daybreak said and then let out a booming bark of laughter at his own joke. 

“He’s incorrigible, I apologize,” Starlight said softly, leaning in close between Skywarp and Thundercracker. She looked them over again, smiling, before the sound of two clashing voices turned her gaze elsewhere.

“Oh, here’s Star and his sire,” she said with a bemused sigh, “arguing like usual.”

Indeed the two of them were bickering, faces pressed close together, voices low but harsh, so engaged with whatever their current snipe was they almost didn’t notice the crowd of four staring at them until Windscream’s helm snapped up to regard Thundercracker and Skywarp with cutting optics.

“Ah so here are the suitors that Starscream neglected to inform us of,” She said, optics scanning them over. 

Starscream’s mouth abruptly shut, gaze growing sullen as he realized his creators had gotten to his guests before he had the chance to squirrel them away.

“Lord Windscream,” Thundercracker said with a tilt of his helm. He wasn’t sure of the correct honorifics, but overshooting the title was better than undershooting.

“Just Windscream, the only lord here is my brother, until further notice,” Windscream said dismissively. 

“So you two wrangled my creation out of the air? A shame his difficulty with trining caused me to miss that spectacle,” Windscream said shooting Starscream an annoyed look.

“To be fair he was a remarkable flier and gave us quite the chase,” Thundercracker said graciously.

“Yeah, we really only got him because he went so far outside the city limits,” Skywarp added on. “Didn’t need to hold back with our abilities.”

“Ah yes, we’ve heard of the outlier duo, remind us, what are your abilities,” Starlight asked, looking up at Skywarp eagerly.

“Ah, I can warp and T-Thundercracker can generate sonic booms following an extreme acceleration,” Skywarp said. 

“Might have to see you reenact your trining flight someday,” Daybreak said, impressed. “I agree with Windscream, Starlet, shame we missed it due to you holding out on being trined so long.”

Starscream muttered something indignant under his breath but didn’t look at either of his sires.

“Alright, alright, let’s give the mech and his intended some space,” Daybreak said, drawing his arm off Thundercracker who looked visibly relieved, to instead slump it around Windscream as Starlight tittered after them.

“Creators,” Starscream muttered as he approached Skywarp and Thundercracker. “You two look nice,” he said appraisingly. 

“So do you,” Skywarp said. And it was true. Starscream always looked good and the colors of the room only complimented him moreso.

“How gracious of you to leer,” Starscream snorted before taking each of them by the servo and pulling them along with him towards the refreshment table. A glass was pushed into each servo and Starscream held one himself.

“Well, I can’t say this evening will be terribly fun, considering these functions are basically just for political elbow rubbing,” Starscream said with a shrug and a sip of his drink. “But even so it will at least be more bearable with you two.”

“Thanks,” Skywarp said sarcastically, as he took a sip of his own drink and then his face crinkled in disgust. “Is this supposed to be high grade?”

“It’s supposed to ensure my sire, the blue loud one, doesn’t get overcharged, but trust me, he finds a way,” Starscream snorted, gaze shifting to where his gaggle of a creator trine was greeting some new big wig.

“So does the winglord come to these sort of things?” Skywarp asked, as he eyed the room.

Starscream shrugged, “Not always, but if he does he’s late. Trust me you don’t want that. He always brings a slew of guards and they monitor who’s allowed in and who is allowed out.”

Thundercracker had the urge to unleash a question that had been nagging him since they’d come this evening, “Star do you have any siblings?”

Starscream shook his helm, “I wish, if I did that would definitely offset the load of being my creation trine's only heir.”

“Oh, did they not want more?” Skywarp said with a frown. It was extremely irregular for seekers to have only one creation, let alone just three. Even more so for royal trines who were known to spawn robust numbers of offspring.

Starscream shook his helm again, looking vaguely uncomfortable, “My sire, the trineleader, her spark was damaged a while ago. My other two creators can reproduce without her but refuse to.”

“Ah,” Skywarp said. “That’s sad.”

Starscream looked down at his drink, “It’s how things are.”

“And how are things Star?” A voice to the right of Starscream sounded. “Still untrained and untrined?”

Starscream stiffened at the sound of the voice, helm slowly turning to see a bulky looking bronze and black mech looming over him.

“Hello Cometfire. I’m currently with my intended, actually,” Starscream said with a curt nod of acknowledgement, face falling into a mask of unruffled blandness as he regarded the mech before him coolly.

There was a flicker of surprise in the other mech’s face as his optics flicked up to survey Skywarp and Thundercracker.

“Interesting choice, where did you find those two? The South End?” Cometfire said with a barely concealed sneer. The south end of Vos was better termed “the slums” and if the background research he had done on Skywarp served him true, he did indeed hail from that surrounding area.

Starscream tilted his chin up in challenge, “They grounded me in flight.”

The admission felt like a bragging point here. Funny how things change.

“Remember how I grounded you, oh, what was it, seven trinings ago?” Starscream said with a smirk.

Cometfire’s handsome face twisted into a grimace and he raised his servo. Starscream flinched holding up his own in shielding. Before he could blink a servo rested on his wing, gently, and with a soft pop, they were halfway across the room.

“Yikes,” Skywarp said, casting a glance across the room at where a still fuming, yet slightly befuddled Cometfire stood. “Is that the guy you fell out with in an attempted trining?”

“Him and his partner, who let me tell you, no less charming,” Starscream hissed as he sidled behind Skywarp to make himself less visible.

“Are all mecha from his region like that?” Thundercracker said as he stared unamused. As Cometfire’s gaze shifted towards them, both Thundercracker and Skywarp shuffled closer together and dropped their stares.

“Not all, a good deal of the upper class ones? Yes,” Starscream said as he hunkered down between them even more. “Part of why I am in the habit of dodging these kind of things.”

“Yeah like him trying to hit you?” Skywarp asked, still stunned at the attempted act of violence.

“Good thing you warped us, I might’ve broken his servo,” Thundercracker hissed, and Starscream was honestly surprised to see the level of anger on the normally placid mech’s face.

“I don’t think he would’ve followed through, not in a public setting. My family will tolerate a lot of bluster, but striking another mech is a good way to get barred from galas,” Starscream said, reaching up hesitantly to put a servo on Thundercracker’s arm.

Whatever dark thoughts were rolling through his processor dissipated at the touch and Thundercracker’s demeanor eased up as he smiled softly at Starscream.

“Well, good for that.”

“Look at you three, huddled in a corner,” Daybreak was approaching them, a hearty sway to his step. His arm slung around Thundercracker as he took a drink from something that certainly did not seem to be the high grade being served at the party. It smelled far stronger.

“Thundercracker you, you have to meet someone,” Daybreak said. “He's an enforcer, you’re an enforcer, you’ll get along great!”

Before Thundercracker could even respond Daybreak was half dragging him away, Thundercracker’s startled optics looking back beseechingly at Skywarp and Starscream, who looked on amused.

Thundercracker’s optics flashed brighter when he realized Daybreak was dragging him to the head Enforcer, looking close to passing out.

“My sire, he likes to make connections, even when his processor is currently soaking in highgrade,” Starscream said as he turned back to an amused Skywarp.

“I like his style, any chance we can get what he was drinking?”

“I wish,” Starscream muttered wistfully, “My sire still has no idea how he keeps smuggling things in.”

“So that Comet guy?” Skywarp started.

“If you want that story, we’ll need real high grade, trust me,” Starscream said with a sigh. “Because I don’t want to remember telling it after.”

“It’s nice that you tell it like it is, instead of doing all that fancy smiling with grace stuff,” Skywarp said, giving Starscream’s shoulder a pat.

Starscream looked at him, surprised,” Really?”

"Oh sure, TC is good at hiding his emotions, which is useful, don't get me wrong, but I appreciate that you don't do that. Even if you can be as sour as old energon.”

Starscream looked at him, smiling wryly, “Even when it creates a fuss?”

“Especially when it creates a fuss. I love a good fuss, better off, a full out brawl. That guy needs his aft kicked something fierce,” Skywarp said with a dark chuckle. “I’d show him how South Vos does it.”

“Oh that, he didn’t-,” Starscream started, but Skywarp cut him off.

“Sure he did, and I’m sure your family isn’t as pleased about me as they are Thundercracker either,” Skywarp said with a huff that sounded half indignant, half laughing.

Starscream shrugged, “Only the leader of my creation trine would care, Windscream. And it’s not really to do with you, but more... “ Starscream waved a servo. “The aesthetics of nobility, whatever that means. I don’t care for it, and neither should you.”

Skywarp grinned, “I don’t completely buy that, but I like that you try to tell it straight. You may be a royal but, you’re a sort of alright one.”

“Sort of alright one,” Starscream muttered. “I’d like to be seen that way by the rest of them, believe you me.”

“I know how that feels,” Skywarp said bitterly. Starscream peered at him incredulously.

“You do?”

“Oh sure, my outlier ability when it first appeared, for example. My creators were thrilled, always wanted me to go into academy and become an Enforcer, and there I was getting arrested by them instead.” 

“I can’t say I’m sorry that you never became an Enforcer, that seemed like a move for the greater good,” Starscream said, as he took a drink of his barely high grade.

Skywarp nudged him with a grin, “Hey, no argument here.”

The grin dropped off his face as he continued, “Never could reign in my processor enough to make it do what they wanted. Sometimes I think the warp drive fragged up my processor and that's why I’m like this. You shoulda seen the way they looked at TC when we first bonded, it was like they’d finally gotten the creation they always wanted,” Skywarp said bitterly, upending his own cube into his mouth.

Starscream was looking at him curiously, as if he were just now seeing him for the first time.

“What,” Skywarp said, confusion crossing his face as he looked down at his plating, “I spill energon somewhere?”

“No, it’s just, you would’ve fit in with my friends in Iacon.”

“Wow Screamer, you have friends?”

“Certainly not in this city, but back at university, of course,” Starscream said and then he seemed to get lost in his thoughts, faint smile on his lips.

“Hey,” Skywarp said as he leaned against the table they were standing next to. “You wanna go get some real high grade somewhere not here?”

Starscream eyed the corner of the room where his sires were avidly chatting to some foreign politician or something. He couldn’t tell, they looked to be a couple of grounders either way. Thundercracker was similarly entrenched in conversation with the lead enforcer, both mechs looking pleased for each other’s company. Well that was promising.

Starscream grabbed Skywarp’s servo hastily yanking him off the table and out the nearest door into an empty hallway. 

“You got a place in mind?”

“You got a preference?”

“Only that we get out of here before someone sees us,” Starscream said, optics fixed on the door they had just come through as if he expected someone to follow them out and start berating him any moment.

Which. Was probably a reasonable expectation.

They crackled into a dark cluttered bar where the tender looked completely unsurprised at Warp’s sudden appearance into a seat.

“Hello Warp, trying to give the regulars a scare again are you? Lucky that Firestorm didn’t see that otherwise you’d be out on your aft.”

“Yeah but you wouldn’t rat us, right Cloudsurge?” 

“You pay your tab well enough, or Thundercracker does,” the mech said, looking at the two of them unimpressed. “Where is he tonight? you two are usually joined at the hip. And you look too pretty to be in this part of town.”

“He’s at a party we just snuck out of, now can you pour us both a drink? All this talking and warping makes me thirsty.”

Cloudsurge sighed, pulling out two cubes and beginning to fill them. “Whatever, just know I have Thundercracker’s comm if you warp yourself into the alley wall again.”

“Thanks Surge, you’re a real good friend,” Skywarp said in an overly saccharine voice as he picked up his cube, handing the other to Starscream and upended it into his intake. Starscream watched him and then tried to do the same, but only got half a mouthful down before his optics started to pool with coolant and his cooling fans clicked on in heated distress.

Skywarp laughed obnoxiously at his expression. “Right, right, I should’ve known you wouldn’t be accustomed to anything aside from extremely diluted high grade.” His servo came down gently on Starscream’s back as the other jet struggled for breath.

“What was that?” he wheezed.

“That’s what high grade's supposed to taste like with a lil extra spice for flavor,” Skywarp said, taking Starscream’s cube out of his servo and setting it on the bar counter. “You’d better just sip at it for now until you’re more used to drinking.”

Starscream after close to three drinks was muzzy and light and shock of all shocks, cuddly. That was until cuddly drifted over to handsy and Skywarp found himself with a servo stroking his interface panel.

Skywarp looked pained, there was nothing he loved more than a good interface, and counter to that, there was nothing he hated more than turning down a good interface. But Starscream was drunk and emotionally raw and he didn’t want his first time to be when he was in a state where he couldn’t possibly consent.

“Star,” he said as the other hummed against his lips. “Listen, Star, no we can’t.”

“Why not?” Starscream asked fuzzily. 

Skywarp sighed, “Because you’re drunk, and it’s not polite treatment to ‘face a prince when he’s drunk.”

“Oh….” Starscream said hazily, nodding his helm like that was some rule he distantly remembered his carrier telling him or something. Skywarp snorted. It was starting to get really unfair how cute Starscream seemed to be the longer he put aside his neurotic high class tendencies. 

Warp recalled how he and his family had once spent a bit of time in the wilderness, flying and scoping out new sights, resting in the evening’s to drink energon. It was some of his first long distance flying, and he had nearly burned through all their energon way too quickly warping all over the place, but it had been fun and relaxed and remote.

Maybe Starscream needed something like that, Skywarp mused, and then actually looked at his drinking partner/potential trinemate to be and noted he was drooling slightly on his shoulder.

“Come on Star, let’s get you back to a warm berth,” Skywarp said, grasping Starscream by a servo and warping them back to him and TC’s room before Starscream could so much as protest.

A comm chime jingled and Skywarp could only guess by Starscream’s wince that it had been from his sire, or someone of like authority. He watched slowly as Starscream’s expression went from one of blissful overcharge to slowly crumpling in on itself in dismal dismay.

“Well, I’m guessing that wasn’t good news?” Skywarp said, huddling over to put a servo on Starscream’s shoulder as he stared off into nothing in a trance. It was a little startling to see him looking this disconnected, to be honest.

“My sire is not happy we left the party,” Starscream muttered. “She thought poorly of you before, but apparently we’ve reaffirmed her beliefs. I didn’t catch all of what she said and I can’t respond or else she’ll-,” Starscream’s optics widened in moderate panic as he swayed concerningly.

The realities started closing on him one by one. His best friend was dead and his family was shoving him towards a trine made out of political motivation instead of any personal desire among the individuals. Starscream felt his autonomy dwindle to that of a chess piece on an ever larger moving board. He started to ventilate in and out rapidly and then-

“You wanna know what happened with my first trine?” Starscream slurred, clutching at Skywarp’s cockpit for balance as he wobbled off balance. 

“I mean, Star I don’t know if now is-,” Skywarp started, worried expression on his face as Starscream barreled on.

“He kept talking about my duties, and my services, and how my type, my kind- whatever the frag that means- has a duty to… to….” Starscream shuddered before deciding to discontinue that line of thought. “And then he said he’d heard about Iacon and my distractions and maybe he’d sent someone out to help things along,” Starscream’s optics shuttered tightly and a bead of coolant leaked out as his face pinched up in distress.

"And then I hit him. Or well I scratched him first, then I hit him. And once I had done that, there was no recovering it. Especially not after I grounded him during the trining. At the time I’d known he was joking, or at least probably was, but I couldn’t, I couldn’t help it.”

“Oh Star,” Skywarp murmured softly before a servo came up around him and then the other and then Starscream found himself drunkenly crumbling in Skywarp’s embrace.

“You’re a mess, I’m not giving you real high grade for a long, long time. That is if TC and your family don’t murder us both for ditching,” Skywarp babbled as he stroked Starscream’s helm almost frantically.

“Listen Star, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to regardless of what your family thinks and -.”

“I want to trine with you and Thundercracker,” Starscream said and he looked so sober the moment he said it that Skywarp almost believed him before he remembered Starscream hadn’t even been able to get off his stool without help.

Skywarp sighed trying to exvent the immense surge of frustration that came rushing up at that statement, “Oh pit no. We’re not doing that like this.”

“Do you not want me?” Starscream asked, wings quailing and optics looking small and miserable and desolate and primus where was TC when you needed him? Warp exvented trying to keep his optics from rolling back to look at his processor with exasperation.

“First you’re the big bad untrineable Starscream and now you’re crying because I said wait a minute, unbelievable. TC picks the high maintenance ones,” Skywarp muttered, very aware he was including himself in that category.

Skywarp’s frame covered Starscream’s as he pressed the smaller mech into the berth, wrapping them both in insulation sheets.

“You should go to recharge, I expect we’ll both be dead mechs in the morning,” Skywarp said thinking grimly to how enraged TC would be at their little dissappearing stunt, let alone the fact he'd gotten Starscream intoxicated.

As he looked over his drinking partner for the night was already unconscious and snoring lightly, face stained with coolant tracks.

“Unbelievable.”

Skywarps comm beeped. With a deep intake he answered it. Thundercracker’s piercingly irritated growl came on blasting into his audial so that Skywarp winced.

“Warp, where the pit are you and Star? His sire is livid.” 

“Currently we’re back at home.”

“Home? Why would you- nevermind, just bring him back before his sire outright rejects us. She is not impressed with this stunt Warp. I know I said I don’t care about whether his family accepts us, but we don’t need them outright rejecting our courting.”

“I can’t, Star’s not in a good condition to go home right now,” Skywarp said nervously, throwing a glance at the softly recharging Starscream. All but dead to the world while him and TC panicked, great.

“What do you mean, Warp!? Is he hurt?” Thundcracker’s voice was reaching levels of shrill that rivaled Starscream’s indignant pitches. 

“No, no, no, nothing like that, he’s just-,” Skywarp trailed off.

Thundercracker’s deadpan tone made him shiver, “He’s overcharged isn’t he?”

“He was so tense TC! And being at the gathering was just making it worse, I just wanted to get to know him a little better without all the royalty slag,” Skywarp explained frantically, his desperation for his bondmate to understand slipping into his tone.

“So you got him overcharged on the night we needed his family to make a good impression of us.”

“So I took him out of a situation where he was uncomfortable! Frag his family, TC, we aren’t trining them!” Skywarp couldn’t help the heat that was slipping into his tone. Logically yes, he knew Starscream’s family mattered, but personally, to him? They didn’t one bit. 

“We might not be trining anyone at this rate,” Thundercracker sighed. “Especially with his sire being near catatonic with rage.”

“TC I’m-.”

Thundercracker didn’t catch the rest of Skywarp’s comm as Daybreak approached him. He was at least less intimidating in aura than Starscream’s smaller, much angrier sire. He appeared to have sobered up a bit over the course of the party.

“Thundercracker,” the jovial tone startled him.

“Daybreak, sir,” Thundercracker said with a deep bow.

“No need for that,” he waved the gesture off. Warm optics regarded him curiously. “So, any luck relocating my wayward creation and your partner?”

Thundercracker sighed briefly weighing the value of a lie and then discarding the option, “He and my bondmate appear to have left for a bit of air.”

“And will they be returning tonight?”

Thundercracker’s nervous silence was answer enough, it appeared.

“Listen Thundercracker, you seem like a good mech,” Daybreak said in an easy tone, optics sparkling. “And I know Windscream isn’t pleased but if you asked her how many times an unruly Starscream slipped her watch, well she’d tear you in two. But she’d also have to admit it was more times than she could count.”

“I’m sorry we disrupted the decorum of the gala,” Thundercracker uttered nervously.

Daybreak threw back his helm and laughed, “What, by having Starscream duck out? He hasn’t been to a gala in years, Windscream just wanted him to be here for appearances sake. And well, he appeared.”

“Tell you what, I will help blunt the wrath of Windscream for tonight, have Star back in working order tomorrow and no harm done, alright?” Daybreak said with a wink and a grin.

Thundercracker nodded eagerly, “Yes sir. Thank you sir.”

“Good mech,” Daybreak said, optics catching the storming frame of his bondmate as he turned and headed off. Thundercracker watched in awe has he caught her easily by the arm, lent down to murmur something into her audial, and watched her face shift into a variety of expressions before begrudging amusement allowed her mouth to twist into a smile.

Her optics hovered on Daybreak’s face, something almost soft taking over the leader of Starscream’s creation trine before her gaze shifted to Thundercracker and her optics grew shrewder but not necessarily displeased.

Thundercracker would take that for what it was for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Righty-o I was hoping to get to trining this chapter but it didnt pace out that way, so we continue on ladies and gents. Its either that or upload probably a 12k chapter and I'd rather not.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here we are at the t r i n e part

Thundercracker arrived back at their room looking tired and unamused. He made his way quickly to berth, where Skywarp was sitting up anxiously, watching his approach.

“So?” he prodded, biting at his lower lip as his optics flicked to Thundercracker’s stern face and back down to his servos again.

“So,” Thundercracker sighed, “It isn’t called off yet, and Daybreak found it amusing at least, but Daybreak isn’t the trineleader.”

“But we’re not flat out rejected yet,” Skywarp’s hopeful tone persisted.

“No, not yet,” Thundercracker said drearily as his optics drifted over to look at the lump of sheets that was currently a dozing Starscream.

“He cannot drink for pit, by the way,” Skywarp snorted, following his gaze.

“Of course he can’t, I tasted what they served at that party,” Thundercracker said with a slight trickle of playful disdain in his voice, before it disappeared as he looked at his trinemate seriously. “Warp, I know you wanted to give him a bit of fun but please, if we trine him we’ll have all the time in the world to do that kind of stuff.”

“About trining,” Skywarp said distractedly. “He may have asked to trine? He was out of it so it obviously doesn’t count, but… progress?” He said with a questioning shrug.

Thundercracker’s intake felt dry. “He asked to trine you?”

“I mean he was in the middle of a whole processor meltdown and a lot of emotions, and primus TC I wish you’d been there because I didn’t know what to say at all,” Skywarp rambled on.

“Warp,” Thundercracker cut him off impatiently.

“But yeah, yeah he asked us to trine. I told him no of course, because he was, y’know,” Skywarp gestured to the hump beside him.

“That was a good move,” Thundercracker agreed with a nod.

“His creators are interesting,” Skywarp prompted. “Did your conversation with that enforcer guy go well?”

“He was well acquainted with my sire, and impressed that Starscream had agreed to court us, so I would say so,” Thundercracker nodded, quiet pride shining in his optics. Skywarp smiled broadly at that. 

“TC, that’s great,” Skywarp nearly shouts, and was hurriedly shushed by his partner, who looked over at Starscream worriedly.

“Oh don’t worry about him, he’s done for tonight,” Skywarp said dismissively.

“Warp, how much did you let him drink?” Thundercracker said, brow creasing in concern.

“Oh that, that’s the funny part. He had three drinks,” Skywarp said, amusement intensifying as Thundercracker looked at him in disbelief.

“He was crying and asked you to trine-.”

“After only three drinks,” Skywarp confirmed with a grin.

Thundercracker looked intensely conflicted over whether he wanted to laugh or be worried, and the subsequent expression made Skywarp chuckle. He eventually settled on a look of quiet adoration as he stared down at the sleeping mech, Skywarp watching his face carefully.

“I think I can do this,” Warp says finally, looking between the two mecha in front of him and letting the realization that, yes, he could see this working out, wash over him.

“You mean…?” Thundercracker trails off looking at his partner with eager apprehension.

“Look, Starscream is an annoying, frustrating, arrogant, glitch. But I don’t think I’d mind if he was our frustrating glitch,” Skywarp said with a shrug.

Thundercracker’s optics were practically shining as he barreled into his partner, wrapping his arms around him in a crushing embrace. 

“If Star wasn’t here right now I could,” Thundercracker cut himself off pressing a heated kiss onto Skywarp’s lips.

As they broke apart Skywarp grinned mischievously, “I mean we still could. It’s not like he’ll wake up.”

“Warp,” Thundercracker’s tone was chastising but his expression was amused. 

“Fine, fine, I’m tired from prince wrangling tonight anyways,” Skywarp said with an over dramatic sigh. “But tomorrow, you’re not getting off that easy,” he punctuated his point with a playful tap to Thundercracker’s interface panels and Thundercracker responded by pulling him into another kiss.

A few moments later the three of them are crammed into the berth, a still dead to the world Starscream sandwiched between them.

“Three drinks,” Thundercracker snorts again, before rolling over and going to recharge.

\---

When Starscream wakes up his optics are fritzing and he has a processor ache fit to make himself wonder if he had been mugged last night.

“Ah, the prince awakens,” Thundercracker’s cool tone comes from somewhere beside him. A cube of coolant is pushed into his servo. 

“What happened last night?” he croaks out, words laced with static. His optics keep focusing and unfocusing and he has to offline and online them a few times before the room appears clearly. His gaze sharpens to look at Thundercracker who is far more at ease than he expected him to be after being ditched at the party last night. Curious.

“Warp took you out for drinks,” Thundercracker says, deciding to give the most abbreviated and least humiliating version of events. “You’re sire wasn’t pleased you two left the party.”

“Ah,” Starscream scrolls through his comms and replays the message from Windscream.

“Starscream, you had better not be getting up to something unsavory-,” The stern tone is playing in his audials when suddenly a rush of memories surges back. His panic and desolation on hearing the message. Him starting to- oh primus did he really cry in front of Skywarp? And then he- he-.

“Oh primus,” Starscream mutters faintly as he hastily jams the pause button on his comm.

“Yeah, you were a mess last night apparently, I didn’t get to see it because I was still at the party and you were asleep by the time I got back but, safe to say you cannot handle your drinks.”

“My creators?”

“Expecting you back at a reasonable time today,” Thundercracker affirmed. “I think Daybreak at least blunted the edge of your sire’s anger for now.”

“Unlikely,” Starscream snorted grimly. “Where is Skywarp?”

“Early shift, he works moving cargo,” Thundercracker says as he gets up and crosses the room to rifle around and come back with two cubes of energon. He hands one to Starscream.

“Surprisingly honest work for Skywarp,” Starscream said with a small chuckle.

“Oh yeah, only about twenty percent of what he moves is illicit or smuggled goods,” Thundercracker grins back and Starscream honestly can’t tell if he’s joking or not. Thundercracker’s face grows soft as he seems to think of his bondmate and Starscream can’t help the ugly pang of resentment that wells up within him at seeing the expression.

“What did you see in Skywarp that made you think bonding him was a good idea?” Starscream asks suddenly. He doesn’t mean for the sharp edge of sarcasm to slip into his tone, but it’s there, almost on reflex.

“Me and Warp?” Thundercracker questions, unphased by the abrasive tone in Starscream’s voice. Unsurprising, perhaps, he probably gets the question a lot. He takes a sip from his cube and sits thoughtfully for a moment.

“A lot of what I like about him kinda overlaps with what I like about you, believe it or not. Strong personality. Creative. Strong willed. Doesn’t blindly respect authority, or well any authority more so in Warp’s case.”

“Was it love at first sight?” Starscream asks, wondering if Thundercracker is going to spin him the same idealistic yarn his carrier had all those times before. How she’d just known, how everything had just snapped into place and been perfect.

“Oh pit no,” Thundercracker said with a laugh. “I tried to keep my distance from him because everything about him seemed to clash with my ideals. He was trouble, unruly, out of favor with the law.”

“Seems like not much has changed then,” Starscream said, cocking his helm questioningly. “So why…?”

“It was a lot of things,” Thundercracker said with a shrug. “But most of all he never respected what my family prided itself in, so I didn’t feel valued by my family's merits or the titles that accompanied them. I was never Thundercracker, offspring of a higher up to him. I was just TC, and I like being TC because I trust that Skywarp values me for the right reasons. It didn’t happen overnight, but it happened and once I realized that it was over.”

Thundercracker is making that dumb face again and this time Starscream doesn’t feel that same rising pang of bitterness. 

“Why go through the hassle with me though, surely there was someone easier? And you hardly knew anything about me,” Starscream asked Thundercracker seriously, leaning into his personal space and staring at the other mech intently. “You’re a nice mech, you and Skywarp both, although he’s a bit less… immediately appealing. You can’t have been wanting for options.”

Thundercracker thought carefully for a moment. “I liked your face,” Thundercracker said slowly.

“You grounded me because you thought I was pretty,” Starscream deadpanned. He couldn’t help the disappointment that crept into his tone.

“No, no,” Thundercracker shook his helm vigorously. “I liked the expression on your face. You were so cocky and confident and you seemed to know what you wanted and wouldn’t settle for anything less. I envied that. As for things being easier, well, easy doesn’t mean better and trine is for life.” 

“You are very pretty though,” Thundercracker said, looking shy again. It was charming, the way Thundercracker went from confident and stoic to wax soft and almost poetic. 

“I have a question or two for you,” Thundercracker said. “And then you should probably be going, since I did promise your creator to have you back at a reasonable time.”

“Go on,” Starscream nodded, waiting.

“What do you want?” 

Starscream looked at him dumbly, stumped by the nebulously open question that had so often been posed to him as a trap, a way of drawing out his sincere feelings so that he could be ensnared by them and belittled into supplying the wrong but correct answer. The one they really wanted to hear.

“It’s not a trick question Star,” Thundercracker said, tone growing soft and coaxing as he recognized the look of distress crossing Starscream’s face.

“I want to go back to Iacon.” The sentence comes out naturally, because he’s said it so many times. 

“Why?” There was no judgment in Thundercracker’s tone, just open curiosity.

“Because in Iacon I am free and respected and trusted to pursue my own endeavors,” Starscream said, optics hardening as he tried to shove down the intense well of longing that rose up in his spark as he thought of his home away from home. The first time he felt free, unburdened, the first time his friendships had come easy and unweighted by the burden of who he was by title and not by action.

“Why did you ask Skywarp to trine last night?” 

Starscream’s brow creased as he thought hard back to the memory of his desperation and panic, what had drove him to blurt out such a stupid and hasty proposition.

“Because I felt trapped and trining felt like a way out,” was the best he could manage.

Thundercracker’s expression was unreadable. “An escape route?”

“I looked at Iacon that way as well, before you get offended. But it had so much more to offer than I had ever imagined,” Starscream’s tone turned almost dreamy as he reflected on all those planets and strange sights he and Skyfire had visited. On how his spark had tingled with the exhilaration of tasting pure, genuine freedom for the first time, of feeling unfamiliarity in its rich and inviting presence. On how things he had looked at as so dismal and homely had bloomed into so much more.

“If you are looking to court me until you fall for me like Skywarp, I have news for you, we don’t have the time for that,” Starscream said, looking down at his neglected cube, swirling its contents and taking a drink.

Thundercracker looked like he was biting something back but didn’t speak. 

“What I can say is that you two seem to like me, not for my title, or my family, or the benefits of royalty, and put effort into understanding me, and I haven’t had that in a while. So maybe that’s why I asked Skywarp to trine me.”

“And how do you feel about trining us now?”

Starscream considered, and then he realized that he was considering, and laughed. “I feel like I’d be letting you down by saying yes. I don’t have it in me to offer you some undying pledge of love or passion. I would like to see more of you and Skywarp. And if my family is going to force me to trine on a deadline, then I suppose it would have to be you two.” 

“Is that as good as it gets?” Thundercracker says, a bit put out by the dismalness of Starscream’s statement. 

“Until the day I stop being a pawn in everyone else’s larger plans, yes,” Starscream said with a nod and wry, slightly sad smile. “Now I really am running out my time with my sire’s patience, so I will say farewell.”

“You desire not to be valued by the titles that hang over you, but how much do you value those titles in turn?” Thundercracker asked seriously.

Starscream stands, placing the cube down on the berth and looking at Thundercracker, optics alight with a coy sort of mirth, wings twitching lightly with his amusement.

“I don’t know the answer to that question. But I can say this for sure, I would like to see you again Thundercracker, you and your bondmate.” Soft, slightly cold lips are getting pressed into Thundercracker’s cheek and then they’re gone and so is Starscream.

\---

Windscream, is, to be blunt, not amused or enthralled to see Starscream when he lands down back home.

“Your presence was sorely missed last night,” she says, and the word sorely is wrought of all the different meanings the way she says it.

“A mistake on my part, sire,” He spins the lie up easily, hoping that bearing the blame can help level the hit to Windscream’s opinion of Thundercracker and Skywarp. “I requested that Skywarp take me somewhere interesting so-.”

“Starscream,” Windscream holds up a servo. “Enough with the defensive posturing and half baked lies. I am not going to discard your choice, though I am also not going to say I am overly impressed with you and your intendeds’ conduct last night.”

“I-,” He starts to defend but cuts himself off at Windscream’s cold flash of irritation.

“You are allowed to trine these two though I may suspect you will come to regret it,” 

“Is that what happened with you and Daybreak?” The smarting words are out his mouth before he can think on them, and he waits for his sire to respond in kind.

“Oh yes, that fool irritates me every cycle since the day we trined. I regret it deeply,” She says and there's an unfamiliar quirk to her lips. Before it vanishes and she looks at him seriously, “But the choice was mine, and this choice is yours. And if you are going to regret being trined to anyone, at least it shall be someone of your choosing.”

“What happened to romance, and sparkmates-,” Starscream says, knowing he is pushing his luck.

“Your carrier is filling your processor with nonsense again,” Windscream sighed, but the phrase sounds almost fond despite its innate derision. She allows the expression to linger a moment before she turns to Starscream seriously, face settling into a look that Starscream had seen only when she was barking out orders to her underlings that day he was allowed to shadow her on her royal duties.

“Sire?” the question comes uncertain. “Did you love Daybreak when you bonded?”

“No,” the syllable comes blunt and harsh in all its honesty. “I barely knew him. All I knew was he was the eldest son of an esteemed general and that prestige was all that mattered in regards to our bonding.”

“But now?” Starscream pushes, expression uncommonly earnest, and open and bordering on desperate.

“His spark still spins within his chamber doesn’t it?” It’s a joke he thinks. But deeper down he knows the answer. He had seen the way his sire’s face changed to show emotions he had only seen when Daybreak came back with energon dripping and wings bent at odd angles. Had seen the way such a hard, sharp, and often cruel face had opened up just to crumble in on itself. Yes. He knew the answer, had known it then as he knew it now.

“Starscream, things are going to change very rapidly, very soon, this ordeal of trining with the Winglord, I could push it off maybe for a while longer, but i fear not even next year the rituals may cease in their entirety.”

Starscream’s expression remained confused and as he opened his mouth to question Windscream continued, tone urgent.

“I would like to see you trined out of necessity, not what you perceive to be love, because it is good to have others have your spark, if not by adoration, by practicality, and that, at its basest element is what trining offers. Maybe more will come, but for now, I only seek the latter,” Windscream’s face goes soft, so eerily, disconcertingly soft as a servo comes up to cup Starscream’s face in a way that for once, isn’t patronizing or otherwise empty in its gesture.  
“My creation,” Windscream says, and it’s gentle, and tender, and sends pinpricks of warmth through Starscream’s spark.

“Sire, what are you hiding?” Starscream once again presses. As much as he would like to indulge in the uncommon warmth, he senses it is spurred on by something much larger and unsettling.

“In due time, Starscream, all will become apparent,” Windscream murmurs, before her lips are pressing onto the side of his face. “Do well to look after yourself regardless.”

With that she is leaving him and Starscream is left stunned and confused at the muted consequences for what had seemed an almost unforgivable taboo the night before.

It’s not long after Windscream leaves that his other sire comes swaggering in, broad grin on his face, amber optics twinkling merrily. 

“So, quite the stir you created last night?” he prods, slinging his arm over Starscream’s shoulder to draw him in closer until their wings clack against each other.

“We didn’t do much for you to pry into, sire,” Starscream says sulkily, but he can’t help the way his lips quirk up to match Daybreak’s jaunty mood.

“I’m sure Starlet,” Daybreak smiles, and he unsubpaces a cube, handing it to him. “I trust Windscream has already talked to you?”

Starscream nods. 

“Sire, is there something that is going to happen?” 

Daybreak’s expression for once is uncharacteristically uneasy and the smile slips a bit, becoming more forced as he looks at Starscream.

“Things have been going on for a while Starscream, you are too young to be caught up in them in this particular moment.”

“Too young or too stupid?” Starscream snaps bitterly, growing tired of all the evasive answers to what clearly was a larger and looming issue than his creators wanted to let on.

“Too precious to afford losing,” Daybreak says and the smile now is gone completely, replaced with something harder, and determined, but still warm in its own peculiar way.

“And what about you, and my carrier, and Windscream?” Starscream asks, allowing a soft touch of urgency to fill his tone. Daybreak’s stoicism seemed to falter as he spoke softly.

“Our duties lie here, and we will be attending to them.”

“What about my duties here, you’re always reminding me of them?” Starscream snarked, somewhat petulantly. He folded his arms across his chest and tried to turn himself away from his sire.

Daybreak sighed wearily, “Starscream, your duties remain rooted in Vos however, a time may soon be coming in which your best option is to leave your home. But know that your home will never leave you,” A large blue servo is pressed to his spark, and he looks up to see Daybreak’s optics are open and sad as he looks on him.

“What are you talking about?” Starscream says, turning back to look at Daybreak with wide, startled optics. 

“We have been discussing that perhaps you would be best suited to return to Iacon as soon as possible to resume your studies. But the Winglord will not have you leave without first seeing you trined. He has become ever more adamant about this since the last trining ritual,” Daybreak said solemnly. “Windscream has been unable to sway him in this, as well as many, many other things.”

Starscream doesn’t know whether to feel overjoyed or filled with dread at being encouraged to return to Iacon. He had learned from experience that whenever his and his creators’ wishes aligned, there was almost always some sort of catch.

“And those that I choose to trine?”

“Will be aided in making the move with you,” Daybreak supplied.

A pang of nervousness ran through Starscream. What if Skywarp and Thundercracker no longer wanted to trine him if it required them to move to Iacon? What would he do then? What would be decided for him if his current intended trine fell through? Surely not Cometfire….

At his distress Daybreak rested a servo on his shoulder.

“Star, be honest with them, and if they truly are the ones you are meant to be trined to, they will understand. Do not found your relationship on mistrust and deceit,” Daybreak lifted his servo off and patted his helm, before casting Starscream a last weary smile and turning to go. 

Starscream watched Daybreak leave the room, an unfamiliar weight to his sire’s movements. It had always been Windscream he’d seen so burdened with responsibility, never his other sire. 

Just as Starscream had offlined his optics for a bit of recharge and to rest on some of the things he had been told, a soft knock sounded, followed by the peering face of his carrier.

“Starlet,” she called softly. 

Starscream grunted, but didn’t bother to online his optics. He heard her move across the room towards him. A gentle servo rested on his chestplates, stroking them. Little else was said. Before he knew it he was drifting into recharge and when he woke, his carrier had gone.

\---

“We need to talk” were probably the four words Thundercracker least wanted to read on a comm from Starscream, but nonetheless, there they were.

“I hope that glitch isn’t aware how ominous those words sound,” Skywarp said irritably as he read the comm, having been drawn over by the worried look on Thundercracker’s face.

“He said he was coming over tomorrow midday to discuss something with us,” Thundercracker said, looking pensive. “You don’t think he changed his mind?”

“I don’t know if he made it up to begin with, but who knows with him? Unless we trine I can’t read his mind,” Skywarp said, and the edge of his irritation was starting to temper into glumness. “TC I was actually starting to look forward to this going well, if he’s tapping out last minute-.”

“I think he would tell us straight up if it were that,” Thundercracker said after a pause. “He’s never been shy about making his disinterest known before.”

“I guess we’ll find out,” Skywarp said with a huff.

Starscream did show up the next morning, expression unreadable as Thundercracker welcomed him in. But Skywarp noticed the way his wings twitched every so often and how he didn’t really drink the energon he was given and instead slowly turned the cube around and around in his servos.

“What did you need to tell us Star?” Thundercracker said, finally stopping the cube turning as Starscream instead clenched the thing so hard Skywarp was afraid it might shatter in his grip.

“My creators informed me last night I would be required to return back to Iacon, and those who trined with me as well,” Starscream said, and his wings preemptively twitched down as he finished the statement, a sign of assumed rejection.

“Ah,” Thundercracker said dumbly, looking to Skywarp who shrugged. “And this is a bad thing?”

“Yeah Star, why are you getting all twitchy about this?” Skywarp said, expression confused.

“You would… be willing to accompany me?” Starscream’s expression is hopeful for a split second before he manages to reign it in.

“I mean, I can warp back home to say hello to the creators anytime,” Skywarp said with a shrug. “And I’m sure Iacon has jobs that could use an outlier like me.

“My family would provide aid, so I don’t know if that would be necessary,” Starscream said.

“Necessary or not I need something to do or it will drive me crazy,” Skywarp snorted. “Not all of us enjoy sitting on our afts all our lives.”

Starscream looked indignant and ready to say something cutting when Thundercracker spoke up.

“Either way Star, we are perfectly willing to make the move with you. Both of us have rather limited attachments to Vos, at least, in the short term,” Thundercracker said, throwing Skywarp a warning look.

Starscream took a moment to mull that over, his fidgeting calming, expression going back to being unreadable.

“Alright,” Starscream said finally. “I will trine with you two. But I want to be leader.”

Thundercracker jolted in surprise at the sudden statement while Skywarp leaned forward eagerly. The two looked at each other a moment before nodding and facing back to Starscream.

“Of course you do,” Skywarp snorted at the same time Thundercracker said, “I see no problem with that.”

“I was actually hoping you’d take the position of trineleader,” Thundercracker said, looking at Starscream with barely concealed pride as the realization that yes, Starscream would be their third, was starting to sink in. His spark felt light and fluttery in its chamber.

“Really?” Starscream said, looking at him incredulously, optical ridge cocked.

“I’m more of a tactician and Skywarp isn’t exactly thirsting to be in charge either. I wanted someone who could help balance out our judgment calls as a unit,” Thundercracker said earnestly with a nod.

“How very… strategic of you,” Starscream murmured.

“Oh yeah, quite the romantic, our TC,” Skywarp said as he slumped his arm around Thundercracker’s shoulder, the blue mech flicking a wing at him in irritation. Skywarp hardly seemed to notice. “He tells me in berth all the time, ‘Oh Warp, I love how tactically sound your outlier ability is, take me now,’” Skywarp pitches his voice up in a grating falsetto as Thundercracker rolls his optics, before turning to Starscream seriously.

“His processor can make his reasoning sound cold and mechanical but don’t worry, his spark’s in the right place.”

“I obviously wanted to trine for other reasons than that we are well balanced logically,” Thundercracker said indignantly, outright trying to shake off Skywarp’s grasp now. “That is just a plus and an added draw.”

“So are we starting this now then?” Skywarp said, eagerly clutching Starscream’s arm to his. 

“Now?” Starscream looked startled, as if the thought hadn’t even occurred to him.

“Slow down Warp,” Thundercracker admonished, turning to look at Starscream steadily. “If you would like to wait, we could put things off for another time when you are more comfortable.”

Skywarp beside him looked like he was barely suppressing a groan, even as he nodded his helm reluctantly in agreement.

Starscream thought on it a moment. He had spent so long pushing trining down the road, in the hopes of possibly delaying it inevitably. The smallest part of him, tucked far, far away, had always hoped that him and Skyfire could’ve-

But that was over and what he had to do now was think ahead and to the future. And no, it wasn’t exactly peak romance, but trining with the two mecha in front of him offered him something fresh and different. It offered him a chance at closeness that had just a week ago seemed like a distant and unattainable memory.

The choice loomed before him like a dark abyss and Starscream decided he’d take the leap. Choose for himself before someone else chose for him.

“I would be honored to trine with you two today,” he said, with a dip of his helm in respect to the two mecha he would be pledging his spark to.

Skywarp looked completely caught off guard before recovering and nearly hurling himself into Starscream’s arms, threatening to bowl him over as he was crushed into a hug that had the metal of his wings straining under Skywarp’s arms. Thundercracker himself looked both surprised and relieved, as he put out a servo to steady the two of them.

“Way to go Star,” Skywarp said and his tone sounded… proud? Reverent? He didn’t know exactly how to describe it but it was a new shade of emotionally intimate, and Starscream felt his processor stutter a bit upon hearing it.

“I want you to know that if you are uncomfortable, no matter what reason, say stop and we stop. Doesn’t matter if you don’t know why you want to stop, just say so. Okay?” Thundercracker said, tone soft yet serious.

Starscream nodded.

“Good,” Thundercracker praised and the warm look he shot him made Starscream’s spark thrill in ways he hadn’t felt since he was in Iacon.

“So TC and I were thinking, we really could do the whole grounding thing over again, y’know, if you want,” Skywarp offered and it was the first time Starscream had honestly seen the other mech look something even close to approximating shy.

“Like, we fly and you catch me again?” Starscream asked, tilting his helm and trying not to betray his eagerness at the idea.

“Yeah though preferably you don’t make it such a chore and maybe we could do it in root mode,” Skywarp said with a chuckle, giving Starscream a slightly lopsided smile.

“I can do that,” Starscream says as he nods agreeably, spark lighting up at the idea. It had been so long since he flew with others for the joy and the sport of flying. “But I won’t go slow,” he says with a haughty toss of his helm.

Thundercracker lets out a chuckle, “We wouldn’t expect anything less.”

It’s with an easy running jump off out the front door that Starscream is leaping out into the open air, wings fluttering as his thrusters kick in and he jets off, picking up speed with practiced ease.

The sky is clear and bright as it so often is, mostly open except for the few people out running errands and the occasional enforcer perched to keep an optic on the sky.

He soars off, and senses Skywarp and Thundercracker follow, the slight ripple in the air setting his sensors alight. He rises, lofty and free, tall amongst a city that already soared high into the sky with twisting spires and its banners spiking up and flying tall.

His pace is much slower this time, he doesn’t bother streaking off, or going into the daring evasive rolls he had done so many times before. Instead he does pretty maneuvers much more elegant and flashy, and in root mode the inertia of his flight is so much more apparent and enrapturing.

He has time now, and no need or pressure to flee, so he can watch his soon to be trine fly and he does, rolling over upside down and slowing his pace. Thundercracker glides along at an easy pace, riding updrafts with ease, turning slowly this way and that. Skywarp is giddier, much more energetic in his flight, he spirals towards Starscream almost looking intent to crash but at the last moment as Starscream is about to give a warning shout, he “vops” away to just above him, and Starscream can feel a servo stroke his wing as Skywarp passes over him with an obnoxious laugh.

It feels like a challenge, so Starscream accepts it and he finds himself chasing after Skywarp, the two of them spiraling together in an upward climb. There’s a small crack and Thundercracker is shooting after them, right up the middle through the space between them, and as he comes startlingly close to Starscream, he lets himself drop away from them, gliding swiftly down in a graceful bow.

His freedom doesn’t last long as blue arms close around his waist, steady and though Starscream spirals away, or tries to, Thundercracker’s grip is tight and Starscream’s spark isn’t in it. The two of them twirl together for a moment before a second pair of arms catch onto Starscream midspin, and Skywarp is warping them closer towards their apartment as Starscream allows the corkscrew to stop and finally halt completely. 

“Shall we?” Skywarp asks, with a jerk of his helm back to the apartment.

Starscream feels a flutter of anxiety and an urge to bolt, the feeling coming with practiced reflex at the thought of what's to come. But then he looks back to Skywarp, face open and eager, with the slightest edge of tentativeness, and he feels the warmth and sturdiness of Thundercracker at his back.

“We shall,” he agrees. 

They land on the berth seconds later and Starscream can’t help the bark of laughter that escapes him, because of course Skywarp would have enough temerity to do that. Thundercracker chuckles amused in his ear.

There’s a moment of pause where Skywarp looks at him and Thundercracker’s servo stays where it is on his waist and Starscream is staring at it expectantly before he realizes that they expect him to make the first move. 

So he does, leaning forward to plant his lips firmly onto Skywarp’s. And as he does so Thundercracker’s servos start to move as Skywarp falls into a slow and lazy kiss, a servo trailing up to grasp around his helm and pull him closer, while another trails down to slip in the seam of his thigh and pinch at cabling that has him gasping into Skywarp’s mouth letting him make the kiss deeper, wetter.

Thundercracker’s servos are light and trailing, skating across his wings as he feels them, almost as if he is looking for dents or scrapes or other imperfections. Then those careful digits are wedging themselves into the creases of his wings, finding their way under and inside the seams to probe along the openings.

It feels good in a very different way than what Skywarp was currently attempting with his servo rubbing fervently across Starscream’s interface panel. Intimate, caring, tender, are the words that rise up to describe the gesture of having his wings felt up and inspected for nonexistent pieces of grit.

Skywarp breaks the kiss and murmurs against Starscream’s mouth, “You know you can start touching me back any time.” 

Starscream glares at him indignantly before he is jamming a servo into one of Skywarp’s seams, pinching the cables there roughly. Skywarp lets out a low hiss, but his interface panel snaps open regardless, spike easing out of his housing almost instantly.

“Wh- how, I didn’t even-,” Starscream stares in stunned surprise.

“That’s just how he is, trust me. It’s better to get used to it than question it,” Thundercracker says, turning Starscream’s face so their lips can meet. 

It’s his first time kissing Thundercracker, at least, mutually. His lips are warm and pliant and unlike Skywarp he isn’t as eager to make things messy or heated. Instead he is content to let Starscream take the kiss as slow or as fast as he wants, mouth open and pliant.

Starscream gently sucks his lower lip into his mouth, needling it with his denta for a moment before releasing it and backing off, breaking apart to look at Thundercracker shyly. Thundercracker’s gaze is more alive and intent than he’s ever seen it, the normally detached and stoic mech looking at him with dark optics as his servos skirt down to Starscream’s waist. 

“Hey,” Starscream feels something wet on his thigh, and looks down to see it’s Skywarp’s spike smearing lubricant all over his white plating.

“I’m still here, y’know, this is a trining as in tri as in three,” Skywarp continues testily, expression barely changing as he starts to grind himself against Starscream’s thigh, to which Starscream emits a noise of disgust as the sticky feeling of lubricant spreads and as he sees a trickle edging towards a seam he all but shoves Skywarp off him.

A black servo lashes out and tugs Starscream down off the berth with him. Thundercracker hurriedly edges himself over to see the two sprawled together, largely by Skywarp’s design. He’s sure Starscream’s interface panel wouldn’t be conveniently pressed against Warp’s knee otherwise.

“Warp! You said you would behave,” Thundercracker admonishes as he looks over the edge of the berth at the tangle of seeker, Starscream glaring irritably up at him.

“What? He shoved me, I just grabbed him for balance,” Skywarp says innocently as his servo palms at Starscream’s panel again. Starscream looks about ready to shove him again when Skywarp is nibbling on a particular neck cable and there's a soft “snik” as Starscream’s panels come up and a dribble of lubricant oozes out.

“Hmm, make a note of that TC, I found a good spot,” Skywarp smirks as he goes back to grazing his denta on the spot, dragging out a low groan from Starscream as the anger turns to distracted distaste. 

Thundercracker rolls his optics, and reaches down to lift Starscream off Skywarp and back into the berth, Skywarp giving an indignant “hey!” at the loss of his grumpy partner. He soon is crawling back onto the berth as a result, greeted by the sight of Starscream and Thundercracker locked in a kiss with Thundercracker easing two digits into Starscream’s valve.

Skywarp scoots himself over and as Thundercracker breaks his kiss with Starscream, Skywarp is pressing his lips against Thundercracker’s, as his other servo dives down to rub at Starscream’s spike housing. His servo is soon full of Starscream’s spike and he jerks him off enthusiastically before Thundercracker pulls away, servo gently swatting at his.

“You’re going to wear him out again,” he admonishes.

“I’m not, I'm just working him up a little,” Skywarp says, jerking his helm to look at Starscream. “Right?” Starscream’s face pulls into an annoyed, frustrated pinch. 

“I don’t want to play games,” he almost snarls, pushing at Thundercracker’s servo and crawling into Skywarp’s lap to grind his wet valve down on Skywarp’s spike. “And I’m not going to overload too early this time.”

“We’ll see about that,” Skywarp purrs and he grinds back on Starscream, rubbing himself against the slick, warm heat of his valve, letting the tip of his spike catch on the rim, until Starscream is looking ready to snap again. Just as he opens his mouth to complain Skywarp pushes the head of his spike inside. Starscream jolts.

“Is that okay?” Skywarp asks, and for a moment his tone is so soft and concerned he thought it was Thundercracker that asked.

“Yeah, you can do more,” Starscream says, focus fading fast as Skywarp’s spike edges into his valve. Skywarp pushes in deeper, meeting a bit of resistance, stopping as Starscream hisses and tenses up. A digit is pressing to his anterior node, rubbing it in tight little circles.

“Relax Star,” Thundercracker coaxes and he does, distracted by the pleasure from his node, the tingle that feels just on the edge of overwhelming. Skywarp pushes deeper, letting out strings of curses that sound almost reverent. Finally he hilts himself all the way into Starscream, who is letting out small moans and whines as he squirms a bit on the heat inside him.

He likes it. He likes the burn, he likes the closeness to another mech, he likes the way Thundercracker’s digit keeps rubbing at his node. It all feels so good and he is barely thinking about anything at all when his valve clenches down and he overloads on Skywarp’s spike. Thundercracker’s digit disappears and he tries to pull together his processor as it threatens to drift off into a haze.

“O-oh,” he said distractedly. “Sorry.”

Skywarp’s face under him looks tight and strained, but he manages a grin, “It’s alright Star, feels good then?”

“Feels good,” he affirms with a nod. “Do we…?” he asks, looking to Thundercracker expectantly.

“If you’re ready to,” Thundercracker nods. 

Skywarp’s plump spike lodged in him, Starscream could think of little else to do but listen to the soft desire that resonates through him. The desire for closeness, for oneness with the two next to him. His chestplates part and a brilliant crimson spark emerges. Thundercracker follows suit, revealing a rich blue spark, the color of the sky as night was incoming, and Skywarp reveals his, a deep purple, close to the color of the highlights in his armor. The three of them meet and the lingering thoughts, worries and doubts are wiped clear from Starscream’s processor as he feels his trinemate’s presence for the first time.

He feels Skywarp’s ecstatic eagerness and adoration warm him, Thundercracker’s gentle, calculated touch nudging him, invading and probing at parts of him Starscream wasn’t even sure of, having lost track of every fiber of himself. Starscream allows himself to give in and relish in the muzzy sated feel of belonging in a bond with two others who balanced out his sharper aspects.

His entire frame feels like it is tingling and cracking with charge and he thinks for a moment that everything feels right, and whole, and there’s a part of him at ease in a way he isn’t sure he has ever been. There’s a fullness to him now that has nothing to do with physicality and as he feels the distant echo of other processors operating in union with his own, a part of him whispers that this was right, this was always to be. And in the moment, he can’t help but agree.

Then it’s over and Skywarp starts to move and this time Starscream doesn’t just feel him inside him, but feels him through himself, his spark. Through the bond he could feel Skywarp’s excitement and eagerness and joy at the situation flooding in. He could also feel, dimly, Thundercracker’s patient adoration as the solid blue mech petted at him from above before leaning in to kiss.

“Hey no fair, I wanted to be his first post trining,” Skywarp said in mock complaint.

“Mmm,” Thundercracker hummed as he delved deeper into the kiss. Starscream felt his face heating. He didn’t think he’d ever been kissed like this. His valve clenched excitedly on Skywarp’s spike as he lost focus. 

“Post trining?” Starscream said muzzily, looking between the two of them, spark fluttering in tentative excitement. “So that means, we’re-.”

“Trine,” two voices confirmed, but they didn’t come from their vocalizers but instead seemed to come from within Starscream’s spark itself. He touched a servo to his chestplate wonderingly.

“Warp, pull him back a little, I want to ride him,” Thundercracker demanded, expression softening as he looked at Starscream tentatively, “If that’s alright?”

The thrill from Starscream’s end of the bond was more than enough answer, and Thundercracker smiled at him as he loomed over the two of them and then sank down on Starscream’s spike, his valve clenching rhythmically as he worked Starscream inside him. Lips met his audial, kissing and licking it as calm words were murmured to him.

The three of them rocked together, Starscream feeling the rigid heat inside him below him, and pushing up to sink deeper into the warm welcoming heat above him. All of it was good, so good, he didn’t know it could be this good. All the doubt and trepidation he had felt about trining rose up to be dispelled as the three of them rocked together and he felt a closeness he hadn’t felt since he was in Iacon back with Skyfire-.

“Shh, Star, none of that now,” Thundercracker murmured, spark seizing at the sudden pain that ricocheted through the bond as Skywarp hissed lowly underneath him.

“We’ll have to, hah, talk about that later,” Skywarp grunted, gripping Starscream’s hips to grind up into him as Thundercracker’s servo reached down to rub at his anterior node, and Starscream’s thoughts grew hazy and distant, the bond settling down and emptying of that blinding pain, replaced with the feedback of carnal pleasures.

“As well as teach you how to dampen your end of the bond for a variety of reasons,” Thundercracker sighed, before cupping Starscream’s face and kissing him steadily, glossa working into his mouth as he deepened the kiss while Thundercracker rocked down onto him. Starscream groaned into his mouth, and a thrill of panic and embarrassment that jolted through him told Thundercracker he was going to overload soon.

“Go ahead Star, feel good,” he murmured against wet lips as they broke apart. And Starscream did. 

Overloading with other mecha, he had learned from Skywarp, was way more intense and powerful than the meager things he had eked out of himself through self servicing, as frowned upon as it was. 

However, overloading while trined was something out of that realm entirely. The rush of pure good that ran through him had his fuel lines feel like they’d been set afire and he felt the resulting pleasure of Skywarp and Thundercracker’s overloads siphon into him as they tipped over shortly after him. It had his processor feel like it was going to melt out the front of his helm, every part of him feeling strutless and incoherent in the wave of sheer power that washed over him through every circuit.

Dimly, he thinks something might’ve been burning, he wasn’t sure. It wasn’t something he was able to question too long as his optics involuntarily shut off and the world seemed to tilt one way, and he was gone into a pit of darkness for a while.

\---

“-idn’t know it would feel like that,” A voice was saying next to him, awestruck and rough.

“Yeah,” another voice said.

“Do you think he’s okay? I think he mighta burned out a circuit or something.”

“He’s fine Warp, if anything we’ll just have a medic look at his array. I think it’s common in first time trinings, especially with how open his side of the bond was,” Starscream stirs a little as soft lips press into the side of his helm.

“Star? Are you awake?” Skywarp’s voice, he realizes, is prodding him.

“Star, online your optics slowly,” Thundercracker instructs, voice so close and low it sends an involuntary shiver through him.

Starscream does so and finds himself looking up into Thundercracker’s mildly concerned expression.

“‘M fine,” he mutters.

“You certainly are,” Skywarp’s frame comes into view as the mech gazes down at him appreciatively.

“Warp,” Thundercracker snorts, pushing him away. “Some mecha have a thing called a refractory period.”

“Some mecha are missing out,” Skywarp grins, but he doesn’t make any move to harass Starscream.

“Well,” Starscream said with a huff of a laugh. “My creators will be well pleased.”

“You sure about that?” Skywarp said, looking dubious as he cocked an optical ridge.

“Believe it or not Windscream gave me her blessing if not her approval of you two. Before I came here,” Starscream said, throwing an arm over his optics and allowing himself to relax back into the berth.

“But what about you Star, are you pleased to be trined to us?” Skywarp persisted, and he could hear as well as feel the welling desperation and disappointment aching out from Skywarp as he voiced the question.

“Yes,” Starscream said simply, and he allowed the emotions from his end of the bond to speak that truth for him.

“I’m glad,” Thundercracker said, somewhere beside him.

“It’s a start,” Starscream smiled. And it was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. Lol. First off, this took longer than I wanted to which is, apparently just gonna be how things go. Hopefully I'll never take like, a full year to update a story but, at this point I think its safe to say you may have to wait a month or more between updates because I just have a lot of shit in progress, and my writing process just works better if I don't force myself to finish stories I don't know how to proceed with.
> 
> Second: I kinda intended this fic to be a 3 ch get together fic (as the summary says) but looking at it now I could honestly see it being 9 chapters with 2 more sets of three chapters. One set would explore how the trines relationship develops in iacon/meeting megatron. And the last set would probably be a post war focus. Right now I dont know if I should do this in another fic and just put these in the same series, or if I should continue this one. I've been writing a lot of trine shit just because I find the relationship interesting and kinda underexplored, but I'll probably take a break from it for a bit as I've written quite a lot recently.
> 
> TDLR: the fic is probably continuing in some form, updates will be slow though.

**Author's Note:**

> So this shit was gonna be 4k total and then it just kept growing so now, it'll probably 2 to 3 parts. I'm trying not to start like 20 ongoing fics which I have a terrible habit of doing lmfao, but also my heart yearns to write trine shenanigans so- here we are *gestures*
> 
> Hopefully I'll just write this straight through and finish it off and go back to trying to write chapters for other ongoing fics lolol.


End file.
